Exclusive: Natural History Museum dinos damaged by careless tourists

REMAINS of some of the oldest and rarest creatures ever to walk the Earth have survived for millions of years deep within the ground.

Children have removed tusks - and careless deliveries have damaged history millions of years old [GETTY]

Yet dinosaur bones at the Natural History Museum may have met their match in the form of careless visitors, clumsy cleaners and even a film crew.

The bones are listed among exhibits damaged in day-to-day accidents at the world-famous museum.

Those that needed repairs included a ­massospondylus, an early plant-eater that roamed the planet about 200 million years ago, a camarasaurus, another giant herbivore dating back to 155 ­million years and a moeritherium, a prehistoric relative of ­elephants that lived 37 million years ago.

Displays of insects from modern times loaned out as touring exhibits were smashed in transit, some beyond repair.

Skeletons of endangered species were also damaged by visitors, with tusks twice being broken off a babirusa, a pig-deer found on just four Indonesian islands.

Skeletons of endangered species were also damaged by visitors, with tusks twice being broken off a babirusa, a pig-deer found on just four Indonesian islands.

Managers of the museum in west London ­confirmed 15 accidents affecting the palaeontology, entomology and zoology departments during the past 18 months after a Freedom of Information request by the Sunday Express.

According to the records, the ­massospondylus had to be repaired after a “rib detached during a routine clean”, while the lower jaw of the moeritherium was broken “possibly ­during filming”.

One of the accidents involving the babirusa was logged as “tusk broken off by child while on display”.

No cause was given for a tusk being broken off just 12 days earlier in April last year.

The skeleton of the camarasaurus needed repair after its caudal vertebrae detached, while the skull of a bison ­priscus was ­broken “due to poor ­handling” in being moved to a different location inside the museum.

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Displays of two hercules beetles, a tarantula, a mantis, bees, a hornet’s nest and a blackbird and its nest were badly damaged on the same day last October while in transit for a touring exhibition.

A spokesman for the Natural History Museum said: “We are responsible for the care and preservation of more than 80 million specimens.

“It is testament to the skill, ­professionalism and hard work of our curators and staff and the systems, policies and ­procedures that we have in place that only 15 instances of breakages in our ­collections have occurred in the last two years.”